Shannon Susko Blog

This week I am on my way to Toronto, traveling with my husband and 3 teenagers, to attend Canada’s Top 100 Women on Thursday November 22, 2018. I am honored, humbled, and inspired to be amongst my fellow strong and powerful women that make up such an impressive group.

Just to be nominated as a Top 100 for 2018 is something I was extremely proud of, but once I received notice that I was being included I felt so happy to have the opportunity to join the alumni of 1004 women from past years. Happy and very overwhelmed!

I always think about what further impact can we make into growing and evolving people, and being recognized is a reminder of how important that mindset is to maintain! As a business leader, and a citizen of this amazing country, I know my actions in both business and life affect others and has an impact on them. It is up to me to ensure that impact is positive and beneficial.

I was nominated and selected in the Category of RBC Champions – which is a category recognizing the impact a person has made on growing and impacting opportunities for women in Canada. For this I am very humbled and proud of my commitment to this. To be quite frank, I actually wish there was not need for this category at all! But I guess that it’s existence is why it has been worth the effort to support women on their growth journey as we continue to impact the culture in Canada and around the world. I hope that my continued support for female leaders, my personal story, and my learning opportunities help bridge the gap in opportunities for all.

This year is the 15 year of celebrating Top 100 women in Canada. Congratulations to WXN for spearheading such an important event that I am so honored to be a part of. Congratulations to all!

This week I was with a client, solely working on their strategy and then operationalizing it. For two full days, I worked with their leadership team on their External Map, to theirSWIMLANES, and then back. It was an intense two days that concluded with my client walking out confidently with their 3HAG aligned to their BHAG. Their next steps are to create a company 1HAG and 90-day plan.

All of this hard work will be shared with my client’s company, both verbally in smaller meetings with their leaders and to the whole company in their scheduled Town Hall Meeting. My client will also be sharing their strategy and operationalizing plan visually through strategic pictures on their office walls and viaMetronome Growth Systems.

Strategic Pictures

Metronome Growth Systems(aka MGS or Metronome) has been a great tool for my clients as well as for me as a coach. My clients have been using Metronome for almost 2 years, and it has been invaluable for them to ensure the plan is clear, visible, and alive. Metronome creates a real time playing field for all team members to share their progress day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, quarter-over-quarter, all aligned to the company’s BHAG, 3HAG, 1HAG and 90 day plan.

The newest feature of MGS, set to be released Sunday Nov. 11th, is the long awaited“SWIMLANES”. I am so excited to have this feature on the platform as it now supports the visualization and operationalization of the 3HAG! This is a big deal for my clients to now be able to align their 3HAG with their 1HAG through the use of SWIMLANES. We have been doing this on the wall with paper and Post-It notes (I recommend continuing with this practice), but with SWIMLANES on the platform, the whole team can see the alignment no matter where they are.

SWIMLANES on the Wall

There are some very key things to understand on how the 3HAG relates to the SWIMLANES, that relate to the 1HAG, that relate to the 90-day plan and priorities. I have seen many versions of SWIMLANES but a truly validated version has a SWIMLANE for each strategic Differentiator, high level Milestones in the SWIMLANE to ensure the Differentiator is achieved through a breakdown of Milestones, and the Annual Priorities for focus in any one year and 90-day Priorities. This keeps alignment to the plan alive as we ensure the whole team is focusing on the right thing, today.

There has also been a lot of discussion on what the relationship between the 3-5 Differentiators, SWIMLANE Milestones, Corporate Annual Priorities, Corporate Quarterly Priorities, and Individual Quarterly Priorities are.

Individual Quarterly Priorities– These are tactical priorities that may or may not have sub-priorities. They can be stand alone or related to a Corporate Quarterly Priority, or a Corporate Annual Priority, or a SWIMLANE Milestone, or a Differentiator.

Corporate Quarterly Priorities– This is a tactical priority for the company for the quarter. It can be stand alone or related to Corporate Annual Priority, or a SWIMLANE Milestone, or a Differentiator.

Corporate Annual Priorities– This is a tactical priority for the company for the year. It can be stand alone or related to a SWIMLANE Milestone, or a Differentiator.

SWIMLANE Milestone– This is not a priority! It is a high level milestone that must be met in order to ensure the Differentiator gets in place in the timeframe set out. It is related to a Differentiator.

Differentiators- These are the 3-5 interdependent activities that the team decided upon that must be put in place to create the company's unique and valuable position.

SWIMLANES in Metronome Growth Systems

SWIMLANES are not a project plan. SWIMLANES are a place where the company brainstorms the large milestones that must be in place to ensure the Differentiator gets in place. The rule of “less is better” is key for SWIMLANES. It is recommended they are kept at the highest level.

SWIMLANES are the ultimate pivot point to executing strategy, by ensuring leadership teams are continuously discussing where they are going, how are they going to get, and by when. SWIMLANES in MGS will allow us all to monitor and celebrate the success of the lanes as the milestone are achieved!! So dive in and enjoy your SWIM!!!

Last week, I attended, with my clients, the ScaleUp 2018 Summit in Denver Colorado and wow - what a great lineup of speakers! Each speaker provided a unique take on a shared theme and provided useful tools and stories to apply to our own businesses and lives. But personally, a highlight of the Summit for me was seeing that so many of my clients – full leadership teams – attended as well.

From attending too many educational conferences to count, I can honestly say that when you allow yourself to give full attention and go in with an open mind, any speaker can leave you with a piece of knowledge or tool that can help you grow. This is why I strongly encourage our clients and their teams to attend, and set them up for success when they do.

From the past two ScaleUp Summits, we have found that the most impactful way that we set clients up for success in team learning and growth is with our additional half-day post-summit. With our clients, we meet in a conference room in the hotel of the summit, for about 4 hours the day following the summit, to discuss what they just experienced over the previous two days. We call this the “Summit Roundup”. The Summit Roundup provides an opportunity for all who attended to work together to decide what they should implement in their company, when they should implement and how they should implement. It is a proven fact that leadership teams (and whole companies) that learn together, win together – and that is exactly what the Summit Roundup fosters.

This is one of the highest rated sessions of the week by our clients because they get a chance to interact with the rest of their team and discuss the speakers. They talk about the impact the content might have their companies and then decide together, as a team, what they should do. It is not just the CEO coming back to the office with the latest and greatest “fad” idea or system! It’s the leadership team coming back to the rest of the company with what they feel will be most impactful at this time to move the company forward, AND a plan on how to implement.

We now know team learning is essential, but other than conferences/summits, how do we encourage and practise it consistently? Here are 5 “drills” to increase team learning, and the practising of it, at your company:

Instill a Regular Rhythm of Learning 12 Months in Advance –From my experience as a CEO,we learned that if you don’t plan for learning events in advance that you are too busy to attend. our leadership team planned in our annual planning session our rhythm of learning for the year. We booked in all events, internal and external, that we would be investing time and money into. We did this as both a team and on an individually level. By doing this, we had committed to learning and to the “practicing”, together.

Make Learning a Forecasted Annual Investment – Because we made a plan as outlined in #1 – we agreed upon the amount of dollars to invest and ensure this was in our forecasted P&L plan for the year.

Implement a Team Book Club – As a CEO, and as a coach, I cannot recommend this step enough! It is so powerful to get the whole company reading the same books at the same time. Then as a team, as a company, as a leadership team, we can decide what and if we should implement to evolve how we are “playing” to win.

Attend a Conference or Workshop as a Team – Make this a priority for the leadership team. As you know, my client’s leadership teams just attended the ScaleUp Summit 2018 in Denver. These summits take place twice a year and have the top thought leaders that are trending now speak. They get the leadership team together to evolve cohesively and get them learning together. This is one of the best investments you can make. For the rest of the team, look for local opportunities for workshops and conferences for all the same reasons!

Lunch and Learns –L+L’s are a great way for people to grow in two ways: one, by being the presenter, or a team of presenters, of the learning, getting to mastery. And two, by learning from one another.

Currently, we are all in the fourth quarter of the calendar year. Make sure you add a “Team Learning Plan” to your annual planning agenda. You will not regret you did! This is one of the best discussions you and your team can have around Investing in your team for growth. Remember: teams that learn together, win together!!

-Shannon Byrne Susko

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At the foundation of every high-performing team is Team Trust. Not one-on-one trust (well, you need that too), but TEAM trust. This is where team members are comfortable and feel safe to say what they are thinking no matter what situation they are facing and regardless of who is in the room. We all know the feeling of discomfort of being on a team without Team Trust. You are in a conversation or meeting and feel the overwhelming need to speak up and share information, but the fear of vulnerability and judgement bites your tongue. You do not feel the support of a trusting team to provide a safe environment for you to present your opinion and feedback. The catch 22 is that in these situations, you also know how imperative it is that you do speak up. It’s gut-wrenching!

In order to progress forward towards any goal, we need to state the BRUTAL FACTS, from the start! [Read my last blog for more on what the BRUTAL FACTS are] Unfortunately, most teams don’t share or say the BRUTAL FACTS. They usually say nothing or say it after the meeting to someone else one-on-one and instead just say what they think people want to hear.

We all need to say the BRUTAL FACTS - nicely, directly and respectfully. So how do you ensure the team is comfortable sharing the BRUTAL FACTS with each other? This is a question that gets asked all the time. All the teams I work with understand this concept, but what everyone is seeking to know is how to implement. “How do we get Team Trust?... And keep it?!"

Team Trust is built from the CEO out to the leaders, and then out to the team. It’s also a never-ending effort, and that is what puts most leaders off. When building our teams at my companies, we called this never-ending effort our “Cohesive System”. A leader must be disciplined, focused and aware (every day) of every team interaction and how it is fostering an environment of Team Trust. The leader must be a consistent example of facing, raising and discussing the BRUTAL FACTS. If this is not the case, Team Trust can be lost as quickly as it was formed. Team Trust, or “Team Cohesiveness”, is the #1 thing a CEO must own for their company and what their leaders must own with their teams. It all starts with the CEO first, showing the success, being the example, creating a cohesive leadership team founded on Team Trust. A CEO must then coach and grow their leaders in this area with their teams.

Individual awareness and team awareness is critical to achieve Team Trust, “Team Cohesiveness”, in place. Here are recommended steps to get started:

Read the Speed of Trust., by Stephen M.R. Covey This is a great book for both professional and personal awareness. I have read this book multiple time as have my clients. This is good for awareness. There is a great assessment to get started.

Read Conversational Intelligence, by Judith E. Glaser. This is one of the best books I have read to ensure when we share the BRUTAL FACTS in away it will be heard and will make an impact.

Read the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team,by Patrick Lencioni. CEO and Leadership Team, have this topic as a discussion at your next meeting. Do the team assessment to get the baseline of where the team is today. And continue this assessment at least once a year.

Going forward start each weekly, monthly or quarterly meeting off working through the 5 levels of the 5 Dysfunctions as laid out in the 5 Dysfunctions Field Guide , to start to build Team. Doing this will drive healthy conflict and allow for discussions about the Brutal Facts.

The above steps are just a warm up to get your team thinking and will get you off to a great start. The most interesting thing of all these reads is that the awareness will be beneficial, both personally and professionally. I have played on a lot of sport teams, at all skill levels. When I look back at our success on those teams, it was always founded upon the coach taking the time to train the team on AND off the field. We did as much training on the field cohesively and as we did off the field cohesively. These are the teams that had the most success.

As leaders, let’s make sure we are focused on Team Trust (“Team Cohesion”), by sharing the BRUTAL FACTS to ensure we achieve and exceed our plans for successful team results.

Do you have any experiences with ways to build and foster trust on your teams? Share!

Growing a company is much like becoming a champion sports team. You need a high performing team and a plan for the long term, the near term, and the now. The team follows a disciplined process to practice and play together to reach their goals. Winning teams have all these elements, plus they ensure that when they meet to practice and play, they face the brutal facts of their state and situation. Staying real and facing the truth ensures they to stay focused on the now and stay aligned to their future, allowing them to feel confident that they are making the necessary adjustments to reach their goals. Seems pretty obvious.

In business, we require all of the same elements to successfully grow a company. In high growth companies, no different than winning teams, they must keep a disciplined cadence of when they “practice and play” – its with their meetings! In their meetings, they need to be clear and stay focused on the long(10+ year), near(3HAG), and now(1HAG and 90 day) plan. Many teams are successful in writing their plan down and in implementing the cadence of the meeting, but fail in utilizing the time together in a disciplined and efficient way. This puts these teams at risk of missing the most important issues – THE BRUTAL FACTS – that need to be addressed in order to move the team and the company forward.

"If the Brutal facts are not faced by leaders, the brutal reality sets in"- Andy Grove

In business, we “play” the game 98% of the time and “practice” 2% or less. In sport, it’s the exact opposite! When we “practice” or meet in business, we need to have a clear plan and a strong process. Here are the key steps to ensure the meeting cadence and meetings you have planned are the best “practice” for your team – talking about the right things - focused, short, factual, game changing and aligned to your plan:

My last point, standing agendas, means having the same agenda for every meeting of that type. This might sounds boring, but they are the exact opposite. They are exciting and dynamic!! If all team members come prepared to speak to the BRUTAL FACTS the meeting will not be boring but instead, evolutional.

The key tool as a CEO and a CEO Coach that I use today is the Meeting Area in Metronome Growth Systems platform. Not only does this platform ensure your plan is front and centre while in the meeting, but it ensures that your meeting cadence is established and logged. The agenda remains standing and all you have to focus on is the BRUTAL FACTS aligned to your plan to move your team and company to the success you want.

How do you and your teams approach meetings? What tricks and tips do you use to make the most out of your meetings?

I loved learning about the 10,000 hour rule when Malcom Galdwell brought it forward in his book “Outliers”. The 10,000 hour rule was derived from the work of Psychologist K Anders Ericsson, who studied the way people become experts in their fields. However, since its release, many studies have focused on disproving Gladwells 10,000 hour “rule”. Additional studies support a theory that the correlation between hours spent practising and the achievement of mastery are extremely industry/situation dependant. But regardless of the arguments for and against Gladwell's theory, who really has 10,000 hours to dedicate solely to ONE thing anyway?!

As a CEO growing a business and as a CEO Coach, I see first-hand that no one in a leadership role (or any role really) has 10,000 hours to spend mastering just one element needed to grow our companies. We are trying to be “masterful” at the entire system it takes to grow a company.

So instead of dedicating all of your time, and clocking every second of that time, to strategy alone, focus on learning and implementing the steps involved in the “Gut It Out” and “Good Enough” approach outlined in my latest book - 3HAG WAY. Although you will not get the stamp of approval for investing 10,000 hours to it, you will feel like a master of Strategic Execution the more and more you work on the 3HAG WAY!

Once you have gutted out your 3HAG, you will have the confidence and time to work through the steps to move your company to success. I have been using the 3HAG WAY in my companies since 2001 and as a coach with clients since 2011. What I know is that it works and because of that, I have been sharing it with all of my clients! I know that in order to have exponential impact, it's more than just writing the book, and it's more than just sharing it with clients. What I want to achieve with all the business coaches worldwide and their clients is to share with them the 3HAG methodology, thus creating a network of coaches who are impacting companies worldwide through this strategic execution system. My goal is to empower coaches to “master” the step-by-step process of 3HAG WAY and gain confidence in their strategic execution.

As a big step in achieving this goal, I recently created a 3HAG Certification program for coaches! This program will impact coaches and companies to become “masterful” with the Strategic Execution System – 3HAG WAY. (Don’t worry, this program does not require 10,000 hours of your time) . The 3HAG WAY is a system that allows coaches and companies to start putting strategy into practice right away. The 3HAG WAY system will help coaches ensure that their clients will highly achieve their desired goals. As a “Masterful” group of 3HAG Certified coaches we can continue to evolve this methodology for greater impact. Hope you can join me at one of the 2 Day Certification Sessions this fall.

-Shannon Byrne Susko

If you would like to learn more about 3HAG Certification for Coaches and to register, click below!

I had the great pleasure to meet and hearJudith E. Glaserspeak at the Scale Up Summit in May 2018 in New Orleans. Her latest book “Conversational Intelligence” is one of the most powerful books you can read to create trust with anybody in your life but as well createtrust with your teamin your business to get results. It is a must read foreveryone. Judith delivered an amazing session closing out with a very long, standing ovation from the room! Her work will make a difference in your life. It already has in mine.

One of her many tools is “Double Clicking”. This tool got its name because the process mimics the ‘double‐clicking’ that we use when opening folders on the computer. When Judith uses Double‐Clicking with teams, she asks them to delve into (or double‐click) on their individual mindscapes to share and compare word meanings and perceptions with each other. Its a perfect way to get context and alignment with a team as to what “Success” means to each individual in context of their goals. Judith created this tool over a decade ago.

I like to use this tool when getting a team to focus in on “3HAG Success”. This ensures that even though all team members may be using different words to describe success, they may mean very much the same outcome but just describe it very differently.

I recently used this tool with one of my clients. Within their team, there seemed to be alignment on the 3HAG written down but the language that was being used by different members of the team was causing some conflict in that everyone thought there was misalignment. It is remarkable to see how often particular use of language can cause humans to “fight” against one another but for the same side! To get clarity for the team and myself as their coach, so we could move forward together, we did the following:

The leadership team I was working with was a team of 4 leaders. I asked each leader to come up with 6 words that describes from their perspective “3HAG Success” and write each word on a separate post-it note.

In the meantime – I drew a circle in the middle of the page on the easel and wrote “3HAG Success” inside the circle.

I then drew 12 lines/spokes around the circle – similar to the face of a clock.

After all the leaders had wrote down 6 words that describes “3HAG Success” on separate post-its - I asked each one to come up and present their words one by one to the group.

The first leader to share put their post its up on the easel at each spoke. The second person came up and presented their words. They put their post-its with the other leaders if there was overlap or similar meaning or if not on another spoke.

We did this process til all 4 leaders got their “3HAG Success” words up on the board – lining up similar meanings or putting up a new spoke.

Once all leaders shared their words it was amazing that there was agreement, clarity and alignment of what “3HAG Success” meant to the team and individuals. We were able to group what “3HAG Success” was to the team in 5 main areas that whole leadership team agreed upon.

The result was ground-breaking! This alignment and clarity allowed the team to drive forward for the rest of the day to further clarify and discuss very strategic elements of their 3HAG. The most amazing observation was that the leaders were using very different words to describe “3HAG Success” – words that were almost at opposite ends of the spectrum. When they were asked to present their words with a description it was uncanny how similar the descriptions were. This is imparative to getting alignment. Get each team member to explain what their words mean in the context of “3HAG Success”.

This is an adaptation of Judith Glaser’s “Double Clicking” exercise but the outcome expected is the exact same. This is a very powerful tool to get everyone’s view on the table of what “Success” means to them and in this case what “3HAG Success”. Start “Double Clicking” today on your “3HAG Success”.

When I was building my first company, looking for examples of how to build a culture of trust, there were not as many visible or discussed as there are today. (Jim Collins definitely put a large effort into this research). The “old business” approach to leadership of relying on trust in power was over. Thriving businesses, like ours, were getting places by adopting a “new business” approach: rely on the power of trust!

I knew the power of trust started with our leaders and the leadership team. We had to become vulnerable with each other first and I was the one to drive this as CEO. Being a huge fan and ‘groupie’ of Pat Lencioni’s work, we start working through the 5 Temptations of a CEO, Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive and then later the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. As a coach I still use all these tools and messages with my clients. (I just re-read the Four of Obsessions of a Extraordinary Executive last week. Love this book!) This view really helped myself and my team build the 3 systems we put in place to support our team and team members: The Cultural System (ensuring we have behaviors we believe in), The Cohesive System (building a high performing team starting with trust), and the Human System ( a repeatable process to attract, hire, onboard, train, coach, keep and grow our team members). These team member systems are the foundation of any great company!

Many people will read this and think it’s obvious. Trust > Power; It sounds so simple... and it is. But at the end of the day, it’s often the simple things that get overlooked. And as I have received feedback from the CEOs and leaders I work with, the “soft” stuff is hard to implement. As a CEO, these three systems were my number 1 focus and priority. I knew if I could get these systems cranking in my organization with my leaders, and if we had the discipline to never stop once we started, we would just keep evolving and getting better as a team. We would be in good shape and other things we were trying to accomplish would get easier. A trusting team makes it easier to achieve your goals and outcomes.

When I think about why the team from my first company wanted to continue to work with me in my second company, I knew it was because we trusted one another and we knew what to expect from one another and we knew we were going to have fun achieving our goals. We would be successful. Beyond my own experience, it’s well documented that the companies with the best cultures, the ones that have been recognized as the best places to work, are the companies outperform other companies even through a down turn in the market. These companies are by far the leaders in their markets. They have focused on their team first.

As a leader, if you focus on your team first by building trust first, you will have a high performing cohesive team. To keep a team cohesive you must work at it everyday. Once you have it you can loose it. Once you start you must create a system to keep the cohesiveness in place. This takes focus and discipline of the leaders to drive this everyday from their behavior.

As a CEO and leader there a 5 actions that you must drive with your team:

Work at team cohesiveness every day. (Overcoming the 5 Dysfunctions Framework.)

Ensure the messaging throughout your company is consistent.

Ensure there is organizational clarity.

Over-communicate organizational clarity.

This takes continuous focus, discipline and commitment by the CEO and the leadership team. As a CEO, this was my #1 priority everyday. I was accountable to drive this in the company. My realization over the years of building companies is building a high performing team where “Trust is Execution”.

What are you going to do today and everyday to build the foundation of trust for your team?

Recently, I rewatchedKathryn Schulz’s TED TALKthat synopses her book,Being Wrong. It is one of my favourite business books. It is such a humbling reminder that we are all human and therefore we all make human error.

Kathryn states that the feeling of being right all of the time, is actually dangerous. Now, this doesn’t mean compromising any knowledge you have gained from your experiences. This means loosening the attachment we have to our own “rightness”.

As a CEO, or just plain human being, you NEED to allow the opportunity for being wrong. Without opening the door to failure, you are compromising the likelihood of success. Unlike any other animals on this planet, humans are obsessed with figuring out how and why our world is the way it is. Without this curiosity and acceptance of not knowing everything (aka not being RIGHT all the time) we would not be the productive, creative, or innovative species we are.

Here are 4 ways to be better at being wrong:

“GUT IT OUT”

One of the most vulnerable things you can do is answer tough questions. Questions that you might have the wrong answer to. The process of “Gutting It Out” is one I have talked for over 20 years, as it is a key step in 3HAG framework. To Gut It Out, you must answer these 14 questions, regardless if you are right or wrong. Imagine each question as a “required field” on a form. You can NOT complete the form unless you answer them, so chance being wrong and gut out the answer!!

Risking being wrong and doing the work to answer these questions WILL help you. It will make you curious. It will help you focus. This is what my team and I has to figure out the hard way growing our companies and now with the high growth companies that I have the opportunity to coach.

OPEN UP DECISIONS TO YOUR WHOLE TEAM

As CEO, I wanted to control the answers to the Gut It Out Questions. That seems absolutely ridiculous writing this now but when you are in it, as a leader, as a human, its very normal to to want to control. Through experience we as leaders realize that the more we can help out team see the outcomes of where we are going the more we let go of the control. We as leaders pile up your own plate too full - if we don’t share and build the future with our team and leaders The reason we do this is fear of failure. We don’t want our companies to make the “wrong” choices so we control the final say. Having this level of control overloads our time and leaves us incapable of actually growing our companies.

There is a reason CEO’s and executive members are part of the “Leadership” team within companies. It is because we LEAD our people, we guide them to the outcome - not control them. We must enable them to make great decisions!

Next time you have a planning or strategy meeting, create the outcomes with you team and guide them to conclusions and decisions. Sometimes they will be wrong, but more than not they will be right and will address things that you were never able to see before. One strategy I use to do this is asking one simple question is always ask team members, “What do you recommend?”

Give it a try when you are presented with a question or request for a decision. See what happens!

QUESTION THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN “RIGHT” FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME

The easiest thing to ignore something or someone who is not demanding your attention. When an team member or team is meeting expectations we are content. But what happens if they remain at that plateau of just meeting expectations and not exceeding them? Leaving them as is - is a safe way that might seem “right” as its safe. Why does it feel so “wrong” to disrupt this peace? Being “wrong” by asking questions and deep diving into those areas of the business might actually be the right answer you are ignoring.

If you are not evolving you are not growing.

ACCEPT “GOOD ENOUGH” and evolve.

In our personal lives, we don’t have the time to wait for all the evidence to make decisions and take action. So what do we do? We make conclusions and accept things as “good enough”. If we didn’t do this, we wouldn’t be able to get out of bed and go about our lives.

So why are so many companies not accepting this process in their businesses? Companies and their leaders MUST accept “Good Enough” in order to move forward! As in life, accepting things as “Good Enough” is a feature, not a flaw. Our companies need it to survive, evolve and thrive, just as we humans do!

In my later years as a serial CEO, and currently today in my coaching practise, I have found myself saying “GOOD ENOUGH” a lot. Like EVERYDAY! This was not always the case. As a recovering perfectionist, those words used to keep me up at night. I never thought that one day, something being “Good Enough” would actually be a key to my companies and clients success!

Being “Good Enough” actually meant getting over being wrong, and as a CEO, being wrong is very scary. It means you might be leading your team in the “wrong” direction, letting them down, letting their families down, or over all failure. But in order to move forward, you HAVE to not be scared of being wrong! You have to accept things when they are “Good Enough”.

I had to get used to working with my teams to “Gut Out the Answers” and ask ourselves, “ Is it GOOD ENOUGH for now?”.

It always was.

We realized that at that point, we had more clarity than when we started and we were more curious and focused on where we were going. When building the company, we were not just going to come up with a strategy once or a plan once. We would always revisit these to adapt them and evolve them as we grew and our environments changed. We realized that in not chasing perfection, our company would gain forward momentum as it was more accepting of growth and improvement.

Where “Good Enough” plays in building a company, is that you have evolved what you're working on far enough for today. And guess what... that is good enough! You are going to keep evolving the “strategic story” – the “plan”.

The key to answering the “Gut it Out” questions from last weeks blog is to gut it out and then ask the team involved "Is it good enough for now?". Knowing that you as a team will come back to talk about these questions and topics on a set rhythm – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually. You will always iterate through these questions quickly and often to keep us focused, evolving and ensuring they're GOOD ENOUGH for now to drive the company forward in the direction we want to go.